Blurb:

Arwel and his family are bad stock, everyone knows it and they’re happy to say it—but left with a towering debt and no means to pay it, survival means living on the wrong side of the law. Arwel has little doubt his life will end via the hangman’s noose, but the risk of execution is better than the alternative.

Tomi makes a living buying and selling pretty things, including those that Arwel passes along from his roadway victims. Tomi has few morals when it comes to business, and if buying stolen goods brings him closer to Arwel, so much the better.

Then one night a robbery goes wrong, and Arwel finds himself on the brink of losing everything he holds dear, including his life, and Tomi doesn’t know if he’ll ever see him again.

Excerpt

The smell of rain hung in the air, droplets still falling from the fingertips of trees. The damp ground beneath him soaked through his clothes, making him shiver. He lay on his belly and peered out through the undergrowth, waiting as dusk darkened into night and bats flitted to and fro through the deepening gloom. The moon had risen in the sky, just visible between the bare branches tangled overhead. In the summer the leaves grew so thick and close on those knotted branches that nothing of the sky could be seen at all. Now, in November, it was lighter than it had been since April.

The sound of approaching hoofbeats made Arwel turn, craning his neck to the left. Someone was coming. The low hoot of an owl went up through the air, and Arwel crawled out of his hiding place. He watched from the shadows of the trees as the carriage approached. At the last minute he leapt into the road. Emyr did the same from the other side, brandishing the pistol.

The driver yanked hard on the reins and the horses reared, pulling against the bits in their mouths. Judging from the horses alone, Arwel could tell the people inside were well off. The horses’ coats were smooth, their harnesses shining. One was black, the other a pale, silver grey.

He glanced past the carriage to see Ceryn hurrying along the road towards them. It was she who had mimicked the owl, alerting him and Emyr that the carriage was safe.

Arwel stood watching the carriage while Emyr, with a little help from the pistol, coaxed the driver down from his perch. “You won’t get away with this,” the driver said, his accent local. “You boys are going to be in a lot of trouble.”

Arwel laughed. “We’ve been in trouble since the day we were born.” He gripped the driver’s upper arm and dragged him around to one side of the carriage while Emyr went to the other.

Simultaneously, they wrenched opened the carriage doors. “Hand over everything you got,” Arwel warned, and the couple’s gaze shifted from Emyr to him, “and no one will get hurt.”

“If you don’t,” Emyr added, “I’ll take great pleasure in shooting off your pretty little faces.”

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About the Author

Sylvia is a British writer with a penchant for the gothic. She currently lives in the centre of Bristol amongst shabby gay bars, massage parlours, head shops, and anarchist hangouts. When she isn’t writing, she spends her time looking after her elderly rats, listening to heavy metal, watching horror films, or in the pub.

She most enjoys writing paranormal, but likes to play with other genres from time to time and has been known to dabble in contemporary, steampunk and historical.

Farewell Giveaway
I have a number of paperbacks, most of which are signed, to giveaway. Over the between now (11 Mar 2017) and 31 Mar 2017, every comment on the blog (this post and all other new posts), will be entered to win 1 of these paperbacks. There are also some misc swag items, so there will be a few packs of these to give away as well.

Thank you so much for your support over the last 4 years. Prism will be closing its doors on 1 April 2017. All content will remain available, but no new content will appear after 31 Mar 2017. As such all request forms have been turned off. Again Thank you,

Hi, is the link not working/loading for you or do the problems occur after you log in to enter the giveaway? The first page of it works okay for me when I use an anonymous browser (not logged in as me), so the link should work. It takes a moment to load though. If it doesn’t load, try a different browser. If that’s not the problem, let me know and I’ll look at it some more.